It seemed only a few breaths had passed, yet the small sapling had already thickened to the size of a thigh and towered five or six zhang high. Jun Mo Xie smiled faintly, his left fingers shifting, and the light green halo vanished, replaced by one of deep emerald...

With a resounding thump, the sapling of the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree shot straight up into the sky some twenty zhang, its trunk instantly thickening. Its canopy expanded rapidly, like storm clouds gathering overhead, instantly shrouding the heavens.

A few more breaths later, the sapling could hardly be called that anymore, for the trunk of the newly birthed Seven-Colored Sacred Tree now boasted a diameter of three to four meters. Countless nine-pointed leaves unfurled, swaying gently, and the entire tree emitted a faint, seven-colored radiance.

After another moment, from the dense foliage of the tree, a fragrance both rich and distant began to emanate. Clusters of tiny, seven-colored flowers suddenly appeared, seven blossoms to a cluster, and the tree bore a full seven such clusters!

Jun Mo Xie paused, startled: "Shouldn't it only bear two sets every five hundred years? How can this tree already have seven sets? Is this a genetic mutation?"

While he pondered this, fueled by the deep green halo of energy, the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, which had been planted in the Hongjun Tower less than fifteen minutes ago, began its first fruiting cycle.

As the petals withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, seven-colored fruits instantly studded the branches—exactly seven sets, no more, no less: forty-nine fruits in total! Truly seven sets!

In the blink of an eye, the entire world within the Hongjun Tower was filled with the rich, clear, distant fragrance!

Only then did Jun Mo Xie cease inputting his Wood elemental power; he certainly didn't want to be forcibly ejected from the Hongjun Tower as he had been last time. He carefully examined the seven-colored sacred fruits. They were identical to the sets he had consumed before, without the slightest anomaly. The only difference was that the fruits borne here were at least twice the size of the ones he had eaten before. It seemed that things cultivated within the Hongjun Tower were indeed far superior to those grown outside...

Another point was that the 'Lord Sacred Tree didn't try to play tricks on him'—that deserved praise...

If a person shows me an inch of respect, I should return at least a foot. I still possess some degree of conscience!

It seemed Jun Mo Xie was unaware that when the Lord Sacred Tree was merely a seed back then, it had only been steeped for a short while in the ancestral essence blood, unlike this seed which had been allowed to eat its fill...

The treatment was completely different!

For the Seven-Colored Village, this was the most fundamental, innate foundation! It could even be said that the Seven-Colored Sacred Fruits produced in Jun Mo Xie's Hongjun Tower were the true, intended, and most complete state of the Seven-Colored Sacred Fruit...

Just as Young Master Jun let out a breath of relief, the Hongjun Tower world underwent another change. A rainbow, cast in seven colors, erupted from the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, sweeping across the boundless space and connecting with pinpoint accuracy to the Exquisite Lotus situated on the opposite side...

Immediately, this rainbow halted mid-air, transforming into a solid, tangible Rainbow Bridge. Jun Mo Xie could faintly sense that through the transmission on this bridge, both the Exquisite Lotus and the Sacred Tree accelerated their growth, mutually promoting and complementing each other. "Wonderful! Truly wonderful!"

Jun Mo Xie pumped his fist in excitement.

He left all seven sets of Seven-Colored Sacred Fruits on the tree, reinforced them slightly to ensure they wouldn't fall, and then departed.

In truth, this action by Young Master Jun was completely superfluous. The Seven-Colored Sacred Fruits yielded better effects while hanging on the branches, and they wouldn't drop unless forcibly plucked...

"Hm? What's going on here?"

After sorting out the affairs between his Seven-Colored Sacred Fruit Tree and the Exquisite Lotus, Young Master Jun, whose mood had been excellent, looked out and became displeased again.

The Snake King Qian Xun had been lifted out by the Sacred Tree and now lay flat on the ground, still resembling a sleeping beauty, showing no signs of waking. Her aura and condition were unchanged from before, which caused Jun Mo Xie’s brow to furrow in deep displeasure as he snorted.

"Master, Master, calm down... This young lady is healed, truly healed."

Jun Mo Xie's curt "Hm?" nearly terrified the Lord Sacred Tree into utter collapse. It hastened to explain breathlessly: "Her injuries, I have truly healed them... Even if you gave me a hundred times more courage, I wouldn't dare lie to you..." By the end, the Lord Sacred Tree’s voice seemed to crack with suppressed tears.

Jun Mo Xie turned and jumped at the sight: the essence blood of the Sacred Village pool, which had been nearly overflowing earlier, was now more than half gone, leaving only a shallow layer barely covering the bottom of the pool. It appeared this Soft-Boned Tree had indeed exerted considerable effort...

"If you say she's healed, why hasn't she woken up?"

Jun Mo Xie walked over to Qian Xun and placed a hand on her wrist. A joy surged in his heart. The Sacred Tree essence blood truly possessed the ability to seize creation! The Snake King's pulse had returned to normal, her heartbeat frequency was indistinguishable from that of an ordinary person, and her previously faint breathing had stabilized into a smooth, regular rhythm, as if she were in a state of deep slumber...

"Master... Your little 'wife' was critically injured. Given the severity, she should have been beyond saving long ago. But perhaps you utilized many rare treasures to create an environment nearly akin to 'Fetal Respiration,' helping her preserve the last thread of life and sustain herself until now. While her vitality has been completely restored by my essence blood, she has been dormant for too long. Her spirit, Xuan Qi, and physical body are all in a state of primal instinct. If she were to wake abruptly, it would place an immense burden on her mind and body. If she cannot bear it, it will inevitably trigger irreversible negative consequences..."

The Lord Sacred Tree explained aggrievedly: "So, she needs some time of conditioning from you, Master. As long as she wakes naturally from this deep sleep, none of the negative effects will manifest." The Lord Sacred Tree truly felt wronged; this time, he had genuinely acted in the best interest of the sleeping beauty. For a person to be unconscious for several months—no matter how diligently she was cared for or what kind of environment was arranged for her during that time...

It could never compare to her being well-fed and nourished herself!

Furthermore, she was suffering from injuries so severe that ninety-nine percent of her life force was gone! Being fed some broth daily was already a blessing... If she were truly allowed to wake abruptly, her internal organs and bodily functions would surely be overwhelmed! This required a gradual process. Of course, the Lord Sacred Tree’s arrangement also factored in self-preservation; if the sleeping beauty suffered complications immediately upon waking due to her body failing, he would inevitably turn to dust...

Therefore, the Lord Sacred Tree had no other choice.

"Oh, you make sense... I understand."

Jun Mo Xie naturally understood these principles. However, concern often led to rashness; it was human nature.

Although Young Master Jun was not a good person, and often unreasonable and cunning, he would still be reasonable when the situation demanded it!

"Thank you, thank you, thank you for understanding..." The Lord Sacred Tree was nearly moved to tears. Gaining the approval of this bandit before him seemed an incredibly difficult feat...

"Hm, you handled the saving quite well. I am satisfied. I will give you what I promised shortly. However, I have another question for you, and I expect an honest answer: your Seven-Colored Sacred Fruits... surely they don't only bear two sets a year, do they?"

Jun Mo Xie frowned as he looked at the tree.

The Lord Sacred Tree froze, followed by a waterfall of sweat... How did he know this secret? Was he bluffing me? Could it be?

Seeing Jun Mo Xie’s look of absolute certainty, the Lord Sacred Tree ultimately dared not lie. Since he decided to tell the truth, he spilled everything: "Yes, Master, your perception is truly sharp... But... Master, I had no choice but to do that; I also need to survive!"

"...Survive?"

Jun Mo Xie scrutinized the Lord Sacred Tree with a look full of suspicion. What did the quantity of fruit have to do with your survival?

"Master... Everyone experiences birth, aging, sickness, and death; this is extremely normal, isn't it? In fact, all living beings in the world fall under this category!"

The Lord Sacred Tree replied with a distressed expression: "Take us trees, for instance. Although our lifespan is much longer than humans, we are still subject to these limitations. No matter if I am the King of all trees, a primordial spiritual seed, even if I could live for ten thousand years, or twenty thousand, eventually, my lifespan will run out, and I will die..."

This was the plain truth, a reality few beings could escape. Jun Mo Xie nodded in recognition and gestured for him to continue.

"Regarding the cycle of life, aging, and death for a tree, I believe you are well aware. I won't waste time with pleasantries and will get straight to the point. To produce Seven-Colored Sacred Fruits, one must undergo the process of blooming and fruiting, and this entire process causes significant depletion! For us, it is comparable to human childbirth... this process drains one's vital essence. Every Seven-Colored Sacred Fruit contains a different essence of life... and this essence of life is precisely what takes me five hundred years to accumulate to meet the basic requirement for growing one set of fruit..."

"If all this essence of life is dedicated to the growth of the fruit, then this process is equivalent to consuming five hundred years of my existence as a Sacred Tree. Apart from the trunk growing thicker and taller, it offers absolutely no benefit to the main body!"

The Lord Sacred Tree sighed heavily: "To be frank, for us Seven-Colored Sacred Trees, those under five thousand years old can bear seven sets of fruit at once! Trees between five thousand and ten thousand years old can bear fourteen sets. The yield doubles every five thousand years... But if we maintain this trend, always fruiting at the maximum limit, our longest lifespan won't exceed thirty thousand years before we vanish from this world."